manifest this

so lets see... i ended up taking that shower, and heading down town to the theater senior party. i was a little cowed, not really knowing anyone. but actors in shows and classes started to appear over my crudites and potato salad, and the set desinger for the first show i did was there. and i met michelle's roommate, who i've heard many stories about. so all those were good things. but it was such a yucky day, raining and cold cold cold. i went to the costume shop where i said goodbye one more time and gave them the mix i made for the shop, now that i'm gone i don't know what they'll listen to. i'm dj graduate now. tom was leaving as i was, so we walked out together for the last time, but though it's sad i'm not allowed to work in the shop anymore it means i'm now graduated to the level of friends now- he can invite me to parties and we can go out and stuff. so that will be nice.

met up with mom and grandma after they'd checked into their hotel. it was pouring down rain- there was NOTHING in grant park. it was so sad- there were supposed to be all these performance pieces, but there was nothing outside, what could be crammed under tents, was... so instead of laying out in the grass listening to bands, we did the gallery thing. we looked at the bfa fine arts gallery, which was fun but grandma doesn't really appriciate modern art, and she would, like, touch paintings. there were some really cool pieces- these enormous suessian cones made of polyester batting, a textured canvas in blues and pinks and browns, made of fabric scraps, and a thick shellac or polypropelene or something over top all but some big circles, and then swirls painted on that with nail polish... also, a big black canvas with phrases carved out of white, sugar coated styrafoam letters- like, "you're one of the good ones" or "but you don't look like..." there was a pile of sugar at the bottom and it was called sugar coated racisim.

from there we went to see the finals for product design, heard a singer while we made plans. we walked down to 11th st, i stole a manifest poster i wanted from the theater building and then we looked at the fashion gallery, the graphic designer's senior showcase, and the MFA gallery at the book and paper center- totally fabulous. this enormous, illuminated cove built of paper bricks. old circus posters. a geodecent dome covered in indigo dyed paper with silk screened silver stars. the artist's statement was about how constellations and the stories we use to organize them are completely arbetrary, and what if we made up new stories to make our own personal history displayed in the heavens? it was a fabulous concept and beyond beatiful to look at. another was like a lady's bordoir, and there were books made of corsets, of lacy gloves, of socks and garters, restrictive undergarmets turned into books with tantalizing little sexy stories written in them. i'm so glad we wandered down that far, i didn't even care what grandma thought.

still, i was so sad the street festival was not what i had dreamed. i wanted to go out with a bang, not with the plink of rain against concrete. but after dinner at a pub (thanks ch!) we went back to manifest for spectacle fortuna, and the parade was all i had hoped for. christopher did a fabulous job. david was racing around taking photographs so seriously, and christopher was up on stilts leading the parade. there was an amazing marching band- everyone had a different silly uniform on. there were all the normal instruments, but then someone with an acordion, someone with a violin, someone with an electric guitar with a little speaker on his helmet. and they sounded so good- they had def. rehearsed beforehand!! we all crowded in and all was chaos, but the cassarones were broken and confetti rained everywhere. i was separated from mom and grandma, so i grabed eggs for them, but when they found me they had eggs already, and they smashed them on my head and my hair is full of confetti. i gave my eggs to christopher's mom. he was leaning against a street sign on his stilts, all tired, but he bent down for her to smash it on his head.

so after that we walked back to the hotel to play cards, then when they went to bed i went to the senior party. the tent, the throbbing dance beat, the end of something so big, it made me very nostalgic for the michigan womyn's music festival, the last night after the philly dykes left and it was me and laura short and heather and l, and we went to the dance before heather and l left to drive home late late late. so remembering that made me more wistful than i would of otherwise been, packed in this tent with hundreds of people, and not knowing one of them.

but i called a on my way home, it's her birthday today, and she was in the kitchen making sangria for her party, and totally cheered me up. i listened to her "time to move on" mix on the train and it was totally appropriate. so the fun graduation stuff is over! sightseeing tomorrow, and the agony of ceremony sunday morning!